They call them "casualities" civilian casualties of war. But these were only children. Tuesday, March 1st in Afghanistan air attack by the military of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has killed nine children in the province of Kunar in the northeast of the country, in the Pech Valley.
They were gathering firewood to take home. News that did not have the proper media attention. Even in Italy, where newspapers have taken only part of a video of Al Jazeera shows the terrible images of children, all under fourteen years, made on an axis, the small bodies adorned with colorful fabrics, and protesting crowd, incited by the mullah of the village.
It seems that the attacks have come from helicopter gunships in response to rocket fire, but military authorities have attributed the accident to a mistake of communication. In fact, this latest incident seems to be part of a campaign of terror directed at people of Afghanistan. Often, unfortunately, there is no evidence of these atrocities, there remain only the words of the survivors, and victims are always defined by the military authorities as "rebels" or "Taliban".
On 17 February, for example, another air strike killed 65 people in the district of Ghaziabad, also in Kunar. Among them, according to the investigative report released Feb. 27 by the Afghan Government, 40 children under the age of 13 and 22 women. Dozens of other women were injured. Immediately after the "incident" General David Petraeus, commander of international forces, has denied that civilians had been killed and suggested that residents would intentionally injured children to sustain their protests and demands.
For the civilian deaths are in fact cash compensation data. For the massacre of March 1, however, Petraeus has apologized personally with President Hamid Karzai for the dead: "Unfortunately, there's obviously been a communication error between the identification of the exact location of the rebels and the helicopters that have made the operation.
" They say the wrong target. Obama, in a phone call to Karzai on Tuesday, said he was "deeply sorry" for the massacre. Karzai, meanwhile, said he was concerned that the repeated killing of civilians can increase the hatred of the Western occupation forces, which "will cause big problems." The day after the killing of nine children, 2 March, hundreds of people gathered to protest at Assadabad, the capital of Kunar province.
A service of Radio Free Europe reported that "... angry demonstrators carrying pictures of children who were killed in the air. Shouting slogans against the Afghan government and American. " One demonstrator, told Reuters it would not be the first time that "poor people and kill innocents.
We do not accept their apologies. Apologized in the past but continue to kill again and again. " The escalation of violence in Kunar seems directly related to the plan, announced last month, to withdraw from the Pech Valley of the year. NATO forces are trying to do as much damage as possible to the civilian population to break the resistance, before retiring in the city.
In fact, thanks to a combination of air strikes and special operations and military actions, it seems that thousands of civilians have been killed in 2010, although the exact official number has yet to be determined. This year promises to be even more bloody. According to official sources, in fact, more than 200 Afghan civilians were killed in attacks and military operations in the last two weeks of February.
Only the latter seems to have awakened the massacre but the conscience of the international political, perhaps due to the video of Al Jazeera, could not deny the evidence. "The killing of children for the air strikes in Afghanistan is a cause for deep concern," said Radhika Coomaraswamy, Special Representative of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
"You have to completely revise the procedures so that all necessary precautions are taken so that children do not become collateral victims in the complex and unstable situation in Afghanistan." Coomaraswamy, however, has accepted the apologies of General Petraeus and his commitment to open an investigation into the incident.
Meanwhile, in this ballet for a formal apology to the families mourning their sons. This time, perhaps justice will be done, but how many other incidents have been omitted in Afghanistan? 
They were gathering firewood to take home. News that did not have the proper media attention. Even in Italy, where newspapers have taken only part of a video of Al Jazeera shows the terrible images of children, all under fourteen years, made on an axis, the small bodies adorned with colorful fabrics, and protesting crowd, incited by the mullah of the village.
It seems that the attacks have come from helicopter gunships in response to rocket fire, but military authorities have attributed the accident to a mistake of communication. In fact, this latest incident seems to be part of a campaign of terror directed at people of Afghanistan. Often, unfortunately, there is no evidence of these atrocities, there remain only the words of the survivors, and victims are always defined by the military authorities as "rebels" or "Taliban".
On 17 February, for example, another air strike killed 65 people in the district of Ghaziabad, also in Kunar. Among them, according to the investigative report released Feb. 27 by the Afghan Government, 40 children under the age of 13 and 22 women. Dozens of other women were injured. Immediately after the "incident" General David Petraeus, commander of international forces, has denied that civilians had been killed and suggested that residents would intentionally injured children to sustain their protests and demands.
For the civilian deaths are in fact cash compensation data. For the massacre of March 1, however, Petraeus has apologized personally with President Hamid Karzai for the dead: "Unfortunately, there's obviously been a communication error between the identification of the exact location of the rebels and the helicopters that have made the operation.
" They say the wrong target. Obama, in a phone call to Karzai on Tuesday, said he was "deeply sorry" for the massacre. Karzai, meanwhile, said he was concerned that the repeated killing of civilians can increase the hatred of the Western occupation forces, which "will cause big problems." The day after the killing of nine children, 2 March, hundreds of people gathered to protest at Assadabad, the capital of Kunar province.
A service of Radio Free Europe reported that "... angry demonstrators carrying pictures of children who were killed in the air. Shouting slogans against the Afghan government and American. " One demonstrator, told Reuters it would not be the first time that "poor people and kill innocents.
We do not accept their apologies. Apologized in the past but continue to kill again and again. " The escalation of violence in Kunar seems directly related to the plan, announced last month, to withdraw from the Pech Valley of the year. NATO forces are trying to do as much damage as possible to the civilian population to break the resistance, before retiring in the city.
In fact, thanks to a combination of air strikes and special operations and military actions, it seems that thousands of civilians have been killed in 2010, although the exact official number has yet to be determined. This year promises to be even more bloody. According to official sources, in fact, more than 200 Afghan civilians were killed in attacks and military operations in the last two weeks of February.
Only the latter seems to have awakened the massacre but the conscience of the international political, perhaps due to the video of Al Jazeera, could not deny the evidence. "The killing of children for the air strikes in Afghanistan is a cause for deep concern," said Radhika Coomaraswamy, Special Representative of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
"You have to completely revise the procedures so that all necessary precautions are taken so that children do not become collateral victims in the complex and unstable situation in Afghanistan." Coomaraswamy, however, has accepted the apologies of General Petraeus and his commitment to open an investigation into the incident.
Meanwhile, in this ballet for a formal apology to the families mourning their sons. This time, perhaps justice will be done, but how many other incidents have been omitted in Afghanistan?
- 'Error' in Afghanistan - Petraeus apologizes for killings (03/03/2011)
- Petraeus apologises for air strike in Afghanistan (03/03/2011)
- Petraeus apologizes after international forces kill 9 Afghan civilians (02/03/2011)
- Petraeus 'sorry' for civilians deaths (02/03/2011)
- Petraeus apologizes after international forces kill 9 Afghan civilians - CNN International (02/03/2011)
David Petraeus (wikipedia) 4-2-09 Rep. Shea-Porter Questions Gen. Petraeus (youtube) Afghanistan (geolocation) Afghanistan (homepage) Afghanistan (wikipedia) Massoud's Last Stand - Afghanistan (youtube) Starving to Death - Afghanistan (youtube) 01.06 Shah Massoud in European Parliament 05 March 2001 (youtube) Inside the Taliban 06 - N.G. (youtube) BRIGADE 055 (youtube)
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